Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat

Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat (September 5, 1788 – June 4, 1832) was a French sinologist.

He was born in Paris and educated for the medical profession, but a Chinese herbal in the collection of the Abbé Tersan attracted his attention, and he taught himself to read it by great perseverance and with imperfect help. At the end of five years of study he produced in 1811 the work Essai sur la langue et la littérature chinoises,[1] and a paper on foreign languages among the Chinese, which procured him the patronage of Silvestre de Sacy.

In 1814 a chair of Chinese was founded at the Collège de France, and Rémusat was placed in it. From this time he gave himself wholly to the languages of the Far East, and published a series of useful works, among which his contributions from Chinese sources to the history of the Tatar nations claim special notice. Rémusat became an editor of the Journal des savants in 1818, and founder and first secretary of the Société asiatique at Paris in 1822; he also held various Government appointments.

In 1826, Rémusat published Iu-kiao-li, ou les deux cousines, roman chinois (玉嬌梨), one of the first Chinese novels known in Europe (the Chinese original is a minor work, though). It was read by Thomas Carlyle, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Goethe and Stendhal. A list of his works is given in Quérard's France littéraire s.v. Rémusat. His letters to Wilhelm von Humboldt are also of interest.

Shortly after his 1830 marriage to Jenny Lecamus, daughter of mayor Jean Lecamus, Rémusat died in Paris of cholera, and is buried along with his wife near the church of St Fargeau in Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry, Seine-et-Marne.

Contents

Selected works

Much of the bibliography above has been drawn from Emil Schlagintweit, Buddhism in Tibet, Appendix A, 1863.

In addition, Rémusat's practical and scholarly contributions in bringing the Dutch Japanologist Isaac Titsingh's unfinished manuscripts to posthumous publication deserve acknowledgment. These works include Nihon Ōdai Ichiran (日本王代一覧, "Table of the rulers of Japan"), and also:

See also

References

  1. ^ Kistner, Otto (1869). "Full title of Essai sur la langue et la littérature chinoises". Buddha and his doctrines: a bibliographical essay. London: Tübner & Co. p. 27. http://books.google.com/books?id=zcNBAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA27. 

External links